This question establishes that there are physical bitcoins that can be bought and I recently just bought a physical Dogecoin as a trinket but I can't help but wonder if there's a solid value related to these coins.

Bitcoins can be found for 1, 10, and 25 BTC and I just bought my Dogecoin coin for 10 USD (18947 Doge after shipping and handling). If someone were to hold onto these coins for years and attempt to sell later on, what would they be worth? Is a 1 BTC coin always worth 1 BTC or, like a collectible, is it only guaranteed to be worth what somebody will pay for it?

I know it's not officially backed or anything, but is it reasonable to think that if I bought it for 1 BTC that somebody else would pay me 1 BTC for it later even if the value of BTC changes?

Does your physical Dogecoin come with a private key (perhaps under a hologram sticker) that holds some amount of Dogecoins?
– ScottApr 17 '14 at 14:55

I'll know in a few days when it comes in the mail.
– Corey OgburnApr 17 '14 at 14:56

2

@Scott's comment answers your question: should they have a private key hidden somewhere, pointing to a wallet whence you can extract some DOGE, then yes - those physical coins carry value. If not, or if such coins have already been spent, they're just pretty tokens, nothing more.
– Joe PinedaApr 17 '14 at 17:46

3 Answers
3

The place you bought from, ShibeMint.com, sells nothing more than keepsake tokens. They are made of copper or silver and are worth only what someone else is willing to pay for them. They will not include a private key that allows you to then spend Dogecoin somewhere else. These are simply mementos and not a crypto currency.

There is nothing to stop another website from creating and selling their own version of Dogecoins. In fact, here's another that does.

You can purchase physical bitcoins or altcoins with or without a private key that would allow you to spend that currency. Here is a full list of physical crypto coins. Without the private key, the crypto coin is worth the metal/plastic/material from which it is minted.

That said, it will still carry the value that someone else is willing to purchase it for.

Some physical coins contain private keys. In this case, the coin has value as a cryptocurrency until the private key is used and the address emptied of funds. You could also transfer more money to the coin, so it could be worth more or less than the cryptocurrency amount that's printed on the coin.

The coins are typically made out of a metal, which has a value of its own. One ounce of copper is only worth about $0.19, but Shibe Mint's silver dogecoin is made of 1 oz of silver, so it's worth at least ~$19.63. Since it's selling for $35, you could say that the "collectible" portion of the product is valued at ~$15. Even if it actually includes a private key for the 100 dogecoin it's denominated as, this doesn't significantly change this figure, since 100 dogecoin is about $0.06.

Okay, so this whole topic stems from the originator of physical renditions of bitcoins which is Casascius. As you can see, this site is no longer providing this service. There are a few other companies in existence. It is novel to have them, but this concept has fueled the paper wallet craze, for which you may want to consider bitaddress.